Wire splicer



Feb. 2l, 1950 A. E. AUNE 2,498,062

v WIRE sPLIcER Filed Aug. 3, 1945 AT 1' ORNEY Patented Feb. 21, 1950 WIRE SPLICER Alan E. Anne, Lowell, Mass., assignor tov United States Rubber Company, corporation of New Jersey New York, N. Y., a

Application August 3, 1945, Serial No. 608,792 3 Claims. (Cl. l40-119) This invention relates to an improved wire splicer and particularly to a hand operated splicer which is adapted to be held and operated by one hand of the operator.

In order to obtain continuous lengths of wire in the manufacture of certain types of wire, separate lengths of wire are spliced during the travel of the wire in the manufacturing operation.- In certain cases the wire must be spliced within four seconds in order to avoid slowing down or stopping the manufacturing apparatus. Prior wire splicers have been too unwieldy or have not been capable of being operated fast enough to make splices in the required time.

The wire splicer embodying the present invention is held and operated by one hand, leaving the other hand free to hold the overlapped ends of the wire to be spliced while they are spliced by the splicer which is operated by the hand which grips it. Furthermore some of the lingers of the hand which holds the splicer can be used to assist the other hand in bringing the free ends of the wire in position to be spliced.

In the operation of the splicer the overlapped ends of the wire are gripped at spaced points by stationary clamps and at a point between the stationary clamps by a rotatable clamp, which latter is operated by the operator to twist the wire between the two stationary clamps to form the splice.

Other important characteristics of this invention are: (l) the improved construction of the rotatablev clamp and (2) the eccentric relation of its clamping bight on the wire to the clamping bight of the stationary clamps on the wire, which relationship aids in preventing the wire from slipping while the splice is being made.

This invention is further described in con`1 nection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a wire splicer embodying this invention;

Fig. 2 is a bottom elevational view of the splicer shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the rotatable clamping member;

Fig. 4 is an elevational view of the member shown in Fig. 3 looking from the right;

Fig. 5 is, an exploded View of the parts of the rotatable clamping mcmber'shown in Fiere, but

turned through an angle of ninety degrees about its axis of rotation;

Figs. 6 and 7 are elevational views of ya modified rotatable clamping member corresponding respectively to and which may be substituted for the member shown in Figs. 3 and 4;

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view of the clamping members, illustrating the method of making a splice; and

Fig. 9 is an illustration of a splice made by the wire splicer.

Referring to the drawings, the wire splicer has two spaced stationary wire clamping members I0 and a rotatable wire clamping member II located therebetween. The stationary clamping members I0 are provided with inwardly converging slots I2, and the rotatable member II is provided with a radially converging slot I3 which is adapted to be radially aligned with the stationary slots I2 at the beginning and end of each of its rotative movements. The edges of the slots l2 and I3 respectively form wire clamping jaws I4 and I5, between which the overlapped ends of the wire I6 to be spliced are placed and held in position by the bights Il and I8 formed at a selected position between the jaws to prevent the clamped wires from passing around one another. The wires I 5 being so placed their ends are spliced by rotating the member I I with the bight I 8 therein. At the end of the rotation of the member II, the slot I3 therein is stopped in radial alignment with the slots I2 in the stationary clamping members I ll, and the splice I9 (Fig. 9) of the ends I 6 of the wire is then `removed from the clamping Ajaws I4 and I 5 by either pushing the wires outwardly through the mouth of the slots IZ and I3, or by withdrawing the splicer so that the wires will pass outwardly from the slots. In forming the splice the clamps I il hold the wires I6 against rotation at the points 20 and the rotatable clamp I I rotate the wires at the point ZI.

The splicing head is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 8, which shows the method of forming the splice. As shown therein the overlapped ends of the wires to be spliced are held against rotation by the space stationary clamping jaws Ill, and the middle point of the overlapped ends ofthe wires IB are held in the bight "I8 of the rotatable jaws inthe member i i.

The stationary bights Il are located substantialiy on the axis of rotation 22 of the member II and the rotatable bght I3 is placed eccentric to such axis on the side thereof nearest the mouth 23 of the slot I3. The bight I8 is therefore rotated eccentrically about the axis 22. As the overlapped ends IB of the wires are held by the operator at each side of the clamps ill, and they are inserted and held in the clamping jaws I1 and I8 by pushing the splicer and the wires together, the above arrangement of the bights causes the wires to be securely retained therein during the rotation of the member Ii.

The rotatable clamping member II is journaled in the frame 24 of the splicer on gears 25 to which the member II is aixed. The gears 25 and their trunnion bearings 26 are provided with an axially extending radial slot 21 to permit the wires I to be inserted through the perimeter of the gears and into their central bores 28. The trun-l nions 26 of the gears 25 are rotatably mounted in the frame 24 at each side thereof opposite the slots I2 in the clamping members l5. The rotatable member I I is rotated by one hand of the operator, whose fingers grasp the handle 29 and i whose thumb actuates the thumb piece 35 which is slidably mounted on a slide 3| in the frame 25. The slide SI is provided with a rack 3?. which engages a pinion 33 affixed to a shaft Si journaled on each side of the frame 24. The shaft 34 has affixed thereto two large gears 35 which mesh with the gears to which the rotatable clamping member i I is ainxed. The thumb of the operator pushes the rack downwardly against the action of a spring 3B which is adapted to return the mechanism to the starting point upon release by the thumb of the operator, but before doingvsc the splice I5 is removed from the splicer.

As shown in the Fig. 1, all pairs of clamping jaws I4 and I5 are in radial alignment and the mechanism is in position to receive the overlapped ends of the wires I6 to be spliced. For the purpose of arresting the mechanism in the wire receiving position, a stop 31 is affixed to the frame 24, which engages a projection 38 on the lower end of the slide 3I for the thumb piece 35. The stop 39 is aixed to the frame 24, and it engages the bottom surface 40 of the thumb piece 3D for arresting its downward movement at the required position to place all the pairs of clamping jaws I4 and I5 in radial alignment at the end of the splice forming rotative movement of the clamping member Ii, so that the splice I5 can be removed therefrom before the thumb piece 35 is released.

The construction of the rotatable clamping member I I and its assembly with its driving gears 25 are shown in the exploded view in Fig. 5 of the drawings. The clamping member I! is provided with shoulders 4I having turned recesses therein for the reception of turned shoulders 42 on the inner ends of the gears 25, The gears are secured in axial alignment with each other and the rotatablemember Ii by pressing the turned shoulders 42 into the recesses Cri, and if necessary they may be secured together by means of pins, keys or the like, which are not shown.

The spaced stationary clamping members i5 are formed of thin steel plates 43 which are attached to the sides of the frame 24 by means of screws 44.

In order to assemble the rotating members 25 and 33 in the frame 24, the latter is divided along a longitudinal plane 45, andrtheuparts 45 are screwed together by means of the screws 41 in the handle 29.

A modified form of the rotatable clamping member is shown in Figures 6 and 'Z of the drawings, in which the rotatable clamping member 48 is provided with adjustable wire clamping jaws 55, which are pivoted on pins 50 in a carrier block 5I. The block has adjustable screws 52 for adjusting the space between the clamping jaws 49 so that the splicer can be used to splice wires of different sizes by merely changing the side clamping plates 43 to provide the correct size of slots to form the proper bite on the wire. In this construction a gear 53 is aixed to a hollow shaft 55, which is provided with a wire receiving axially extending slot 55 and the gear 53 is also provided with an axially extending slot 55 which matches with the slot 55 in the shaft 54. The carrier 5I is provided with a bore which is slipped over the gear 53, and the carrier block is xed thereto. The block 5I and the gear 53 are provided with matching sector shaped slots 5l for the reception of the adjustable clamping jaws 49.

In the operation of the splicer the operator brings the ends of the wires I6 together in overlapping relation and with one hand he grasps the overlapped portions of the wires at one place between the index and middle fingers and at a separated place between the thumb (on one side of the wire) and the ring and middle iingers (on the other side of the wire). With the other hand the operator grasps the hand grip 29 of the splicer with the mechanism in the position as shown in Fig. l, and pushes the clamping jaws I4 and I5 over the overlapped wires I5 between the places on the wire held by the rst hand. The wires being gripped by the jaws, the operator pushes the thumb piece 3B downwardly with the thumb of the hand on the grip 28 until the thumb piece is against the stop 59. The operator then withdraws the splicer from the wire, and the splice I9 is formed. The thumb piece 38 may then be released and the mechanism is returned to its starting position by the spring 36.

While the preferred forms of this invention have been described more or less in detail herein, it will be understood that changes therein may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention and the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent l. A wire splicer comprising a frame provided with a hand grip located at one end thereof and three clamping members located at the other end thereof for clamping the overlapped ends of the wire to be spliced, two of said clamping members being spaced apart and fixed in respect to said frame, the third clamping member being rotatable and positioned between said fixed members, said fixed clamping members having V-shaped slots which are in alignment with each other and converge and extend towards said hand grip, and means positioned adjacent to said hand grip and adapted to be operated by said gripping hand of the operator thereon for actuating said revolvable member throughout its movement for forming said splice.

2. A wire splicer comprising two fixed spaced clamping members having clamping jaws and a rotatable clamping member positioned between said members, said rotatable member comprising a plate having radially converging clamping jaws, a gear fixed to each side of said plate, each of said gears having trunnions upon which said gears and plate are mounted, an axial bore extending through said trunnions and gears, said gears and trunnions having an axially extending slot in radial alignment with the space be tween said jaws, a frame in which said clamping members are mounted, a hand grip on said frame, means on said frame adapted to be actuated by the operators hand on said grip for actuating said gears, and stops for arresting said actuating means at the end of each rotative movement of said rotatable member with all clamping jaws in radial alignment.

3. A wire splicer comprising a frame, a hand grip adapted to be grasped by one hand of an operator which completely supports and operates said splicer, xed pairs of wire clamping jaws on each side of said frame at the end thereof opposite to said hand grip, each pair of said jaws having a slot-like opening therebetween extending inwardly from the outer ends of said jaws towards said hand grip, a pair of wire clamping jaws rotatably mounted in said frame between said fixed jaws, said pair of rotatable jaws having a slot-like opening therein extending radially towards its axis of rotation, means actuated by the same hand of the operator on said grip for rotating said rotatable jaws in reverse directions, and means for stopping said pair of rotatable jaws in alignment with said pairs of fixed jaws at the ends of its rotational movements in each direction.

ALAN E. AUNE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

